Copyright complaint on domain name

I own a domain name that includes a big company's name. It is a short name, 4 letters, "eniv" backwards. They've contacted me a couple times with a copyright complaint because my domain name is like vi*e****.com. It has the best videos from that site on it. They contacted me first with a legal letter saying that I had until the 9th to hand over the domain name, but it was not an exhaustive statement. Now they've contacted my hosting provider, but my hosting didn't do anything about it, just forwarded the complaint to me.

This is probably just scare tactics to get me to comply, right? I've thought about changing the name, but I hear u can lose like 10% of the link juice even with 301 redirects. Not to mention, there are hundreds of sites doing the same thing as me that also have their name in the domain name.

Is the letter from a lawyer ? or does it seem official ? People do this stuff all the time to scare you to give them a free domain, show this document to someone you know who is a lawyer. Make sure though, that with posting/embedding the videos from that site you are not braking any copyright laws.

Almenocinque said:

Is the letter from a lawyer ? or does it seem official ? People do this stuff all the time to scare you to give them a free domain, show this document to someone you know who is a lawyer. Make sure though, that with posting/embedding the videos from that site you are not braking any copyright laws.

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Yes it is from a lawyer, has all the contact info and is legit.

I'm covered with the videos because the site doesn't own an exclusive license to them. It's up to the users to request video removal.

Contact them and ask them what is this domain worth to them ?

Ask for a lot of $$$$$$ and move on.

You registered a .com which sadly the US has a lot of pull on, which means that US copyright law applies.

The site you're referring to has a very generic name, so if you were to create a site about vinegar or any variation of the term - you could likely fight it on the basis that the domain doesn't infringe on copyrights, but uses a widely common term that is within the public language and public domain. But, it sounds like your site is all about their videos - and that's where they'll get you. By using their videos, they can say you're capitalizing on their brand and misusing it (even placing a "we're not affiliate with yxyz company" won't help).

Domain & Hosting companies are really scared of these kind of requests, and will usually cancel your domain if they can provide valid proof that they own the trademark name.

Your best bet is to move your site to a new domain, and turn your current domain into a generic page that doesn't contain any content. You could try emailing them and saying that the site is generic and not about their company, which might buy you enough time to try and sell it to them (their response to you will likely state that they own the trademarks and you're infringing it with your site which they have screenshots/proof of - of course all of that will be in legal speak). Offer to sell the domain to them for a relatively low price and tell them it would be cheaper than ongoing legal costs - lol I wonder if they'd take it back to them, they might have to.

I wonder if they would take it seriously if I offered it to them for sale lol. How much do you think I could get?

If I moved it to a new domain, I would rather 301 because otherwise the new site would be worthless. Surely they wouldn't pursue a domain with just a redirect, right?

Honestly, I doubt you'll get paid out. Try something low like $50 - $100. Good luck and let us know if they pay out.

starvinmarvin14 said:

I own a domain name that includes a big company's name. It is a short name, 4 letters, "eniv" backwards. They've contacted me a couple times with a copyright complaint because my domain name is like vi*e****.com. It has the best videos from that site on it. They contacted me first with a legal letter saying that I had until the 9th to hand over the domain name, but it was not an exhaustive statement. Now they've contacted my hosting provider, but my hosting didn't do anything about it, just forwarded the complaint to me.

This is probably just scare tactics to get me to comply, right? I've thought about changing the name, but I hear u can lose like 10% of the link juice even with 301 redirects. Not to mention, there are hundreds of sites doing the same thing as me that also have their name in the domain name.

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pm me the domain name. let me see why they want it. and how to kick their ass off. I can help u.